:wtf:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/18/yoo-al-marri/Yoo: Court Rejection Of Bush Detainee Policy Is An Effort ‘To Deny What Happened On 9/11'
Appearing on Fox News’ Journal Editorial Report this weekend, former Bush Justice Department official John Yoo, a primary architect of the administration’s detainee policies, attacked a recent court decision barring the indefinite detention of civilians by the military as an effort “to deny what happened on September 11.”
Using that claim as his premise, Yoo disingenuously attacked the legal reasoning of the decision while also arguing that the court decision is not a rejection of Bush administration policy. Watch it and read transcript at link~~
In his attempt to discredit the court’s rebuke of President Bush’s detainee policy, Yoo makes several false and misleading claims that undermine his argument:
Claim #1 — Osama bin Laden would be treated “like any other criminal” in the U.S.: The Fourth Circuit Court specifically limited the ruling to those who are in the U.S. legally, have established connections here, and are citizens of countries that enjoy good standing with the U.S. Bin Laden is neither a citizen of a country friendly to the U.S. nor would he ever be allowed to enter this country legally. Thus, his detainment would not be barred under this ruling.
Claim #2 — The “decision is an outlier and doesn’t represent a rejection” of Bush’s policies: In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the original military commissions set up by the administration “were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law.” Two weeks ago, two separate military judges ruled that the revised military commissions set up by the administration have no jurisdiction over any of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The ruling is only the latest in a series of blows to the Bush administration’s detainee policy.
Claim #3 — These judges “have been putting up resistance to the war on terrorism for many years”: The Fourth Circuit Court, which made the ruling, is actually one of the most conservative appellate courts in the nation. The same court previously ruled that American citizens captured in “a zone of active combat in a foreign theater of conflict” can be held as “enemy combatants.” One of the judges who wrote the decision, Roger Gregory, was appointed by Bush.
As ThinkProgress has noted before, Yoo has a history extreme of positions in his legal advice. He has previously argued that interrogation isn’t torture unless it results in organ failure or death, Bush didn’t need to ask Congress before invading, Iraq and that the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to detainees.